Sunday 12 July 2020

Mapping Mountains – Significant Height Revisions – 100m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales


The Knoll (ST 424 904)

There has been a Significant Height Revision to a hill that is listed in the 100m Twmpau and Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales, with the summit height, bwlch height and their locations, the drop, dominance and status of the hill confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.

LIDAR image of The Knoll (ST 424 904)

The criteria for the two listings that this height revision applies to are:

100m Twmpau - Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 30m minimum drop, with an accompanying sub list entitled the 100m Sub-Twmpau with the criteria for this sub category being all Welsh hills at or above 100m and below 200m in height with 20m or more and below 30m of drop, with the word Twmpau being an acronym standing for thirty welsh metre prominences and upward.

Y Trechol - The Dominant Hills of Wales - Welsh P30 hills whose prominence  equal or exceed half that of their absolute height.  With the criteria for Lesser Dominant status being those additional Welsh P30 hills whose prominence is between one third and half that of their absolute height.  The list is authored by Myrddyn Phillips with the Introduction to the start of the Mapping Mountains publication of this list appearing on the 3rd December 2015, and the list is now available in its entirety on Mapping Mountains in Google Doc format.

The name the hill is listed by is The Knoll, and it is adjoined to the Gwent Is Coed group of hills which are situated in the south-eastern part of South Wales (Region C, Sub-Region C3), and it is positioned with the A48 road to its north and the M4 motorway to its south, and has the city of Casnewydd (Newport) towards the west south-west.

When the original 30-99m height band of Welsh P30 hills were published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website this hill was included in the main P30 list with a c 90m summit height, based on its uppermost contour that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

When the sub list was standardised, and interpolated heights and drop values also included the details for this hill were re-assessed and it was listed with c 51m of drop, based on an estimated c 94m summit height based on interpolation of 5m contouring and a 43m bwlch spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

LIDAR close up image of The Knoll

The summit height produced by LIDAR analysis is 101.9m positioned at ST 42467 90424, this is a substantial height revision compared to some revised heights and it comes within the parameters of the Significant Height Revisions used within this page heading, these parameters are:

The term Significant Height Revisions applies to any listed hill whose interpolated summit height and Ordnance Survey or Harvey map summit spot height has a 2m or more discrepancy when compared to the survey result produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000 or analysis of data produced via LIDAR.  Also included are hills whose summit map data is missing an uppermost ring contour when compared to the data produced by the Trimble or by LIDAR analysis. 

Therefore, this hill’s new listed summit height is 101.9m and this was produced by LIDAR analysis, this is 7.9m higher than its previously listed height of c 94m which was based on interpolation of its uppermost 90m ring contour on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map.


ills of Wales, and are reproduced below@
The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Gwent Is Coed

Name:  The Knoll

OS 1:50,000 map:  171, 172

Summit Height (New Height):  101.9m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  ST 42467 90424 (LIDAR)

Bwlch Height:  43.1m (LIDAR)

Bwlch Grid Reference:  ST 42135 90345 (LIDAR)

Drop:  58.7m (LIDAR)

Dominance:  57.66% (LIDAR)


Myrddyn Phillips (July 2020)




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